Cong, BJP in War of Videos on Twitter over Rafale Deal

New Delhi, Aug 14 (PTI) The Congress and the BJP were engaged in a war of videos on Twitter over the Rafale fighter jet deal, with the ruling party explaining how it benefitted the country and the opposition accusing it of hiding facts.

The BJP and the Congress released the over two-minute videos, accusing each other and explaining the deal by using an analogy of locks in a society/building that were to be changed with new ones.

"Trapped in the web of lies on Rafale deal? Watch this simplified explanation," the BJP tweeted yesterday.

The video used TV actress Pallavi Joshi explain the Rafale deal.

The Congress then put out its own video today, saying, "Trapped in the web of lies on Rafale deal? Watch this 'real' explanation. PS: To the BJP 'mitrogen' is clearly getting to your head."

The BJP said in its video claimed the Rafale deal was like upgrading locks of a building. While the old secretary kept talking to a French firm for some deal that would give password protected locks, but 10 years passed and he did not do anything.

The narrator said when she became the secretary, she got to know that the old secretary was just talking about buying locks. "What is the use of that if we dont have video door phones with them. If we buy locks with such advanced technology, then there will expenditure on its maintenance and repair."

She said as the technology advanced, locks were required to be upgraded and the price of all these things was going over Rs 10,000.

"So I spoke with the top boss of that French company. Then I got to know that there is no contract on paper. And the old secretary who was claiming to buy the locks for Rs 5,000 that I have bought only for Rs 4,000," she said.

The actress claimed she renegotiated the whole deal and also kept the condition that some parts of the lock would be made in India so that if there is a problem, they would not have to rush abroad repeatedly.

"The whole deal I finalised for Rs 7,000. Compared to their Rs 10,000 we did it for Rs 7,000, this is the Rafale deal," she said.

"We got the planes at a cheap price. Along with them, we also got missiles which we can hit enemy countries far away. Along with that many parts of the planes will be manufactured in our country. The most important thing is that in this entire deal the country has saved 12.5 crores.

"The old secretary returned from abroad yesterday and started asking questions, so I told him that you take care of your potato factory and leave the security of the society on us," she also said.

The Congress video showed a woman saying the Rafale deal was like upgrading locks of the society since many years.

"When I was the secretary, I had made a deal with a French company. The building security is a very important issue and there can be no scope of error in this. So we thought that let us get most of the locks in our country so that we don't have to take help from abroad," the video said.

She said it gave the responsibility of manufacturing to a government company, that had several years of experience in making locks and made this deal in just Rs 6,000 because the "country's profit is our profit".

"Recently the 'chowkidaar' of our building said that I will take the responsibility of everyone's security and then he called up the same French company that I have a friend who fries 'pakodas', he has a lot of loan pending against him, I will tell him that for paying off the loan, he will also make the key.

"The chowkidaar said he just needs 1/4 of the locks that we had asked for because less security is better than more security. Later we got to know that 'chowkidaar ji's friend has never made a key," it said.

They asked him about the expenditure, to which he said it was a secret and they could not tell anybody.

"We then asked the French company, they said that 'chowkidaar ji' didnt tell you the deal was struck for Rs 18,000," the Congress video said, adding that three times the amount we had agreed upon.

"This is the Rafale deal, a well thought-out scam in which the country's money was being stolen from under its nose. Participation in scam and dishonesty in security, this government's policy is like this.

"So we request the chowkidaar who makes tea from the gas from gutter that his security policies and traditions of corruption should not endanger the country because making a fool of the people is not easy,"the Congress said.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)